Twilight Zone (Or Lost)

I was five years old, squirming in my chair. My haircut successfully completed, I was waiting for my mom’s hair to be finished.

“Honey, do you want to walk home all by yourself?” Today Mom’s hairdresser would call Child Services, but we lived in a small town, it was a different time, and Mom’s offer seemed perfectly reasonable.

“302 Main Street,” I recited in my mind. There were no turns involved, and I headed out. I walked. Walked. Walked. I took a deep breath and walked. Walked. Walked.

The numbers were getting closer and closer to 302, but nothing looked familiar. Finally, there was the number “302,” a filling station! I stood before the building, tears streaming down my face. I had no possible explanation of where I was or what was happening. I was starring in the scariest episode of The Twilight Zone possible.

Someone was looking out for me that day. A nice woman at the filling station noticed my tears and drove me home. I had walked far enough in the wrong direction to end up at 302 West Main Street, not 302 East Main. Thankfully, the woman didn’t merely redirect me. She got in her car and took me home. She waited for me to go inside, where my mom was in a panic because I wasn’t there.

Do you remember the feeling of being lost? The confusion. The fear. Eventually, the panic.

When we are lost, emotionally or spiritually, all we need to do is reach out to God. The woman at the filling station that day was my God with skin on, revealing God’s character and care.

God sees our tears even before we shed them. He walks with us. Won’t leave our sides. If we wander off, He watches us, roots for us, moves heaven and earth to get us back on track. He places people in our paths that can show us the way.

The trick to the trek, to getting home safely, is to reach out to others and find God within. Self-sufficiency is an illusion. Without God, we separate ourselves from the fabric of our own being,”for in Him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28 NIV). If we stay centered in God, we are our truest selves, and we save ourselves the agony of being lost.

Today, be aware.
God’s Life floods your heart.
It’s always Raining Grace.